The educational settings of about 2,000 Jefferson Parish public school students are poised to change in 2012-13 under a campus closure, consolidation and enrollment balancing plan that officials will hold up for public comments at two much-anticipated hearings next week. School Board members and administrators have been describing the hearings as prominent items on their calendars for at least a month.

Susan Poag/The Times-PicayuneKate Middleton parent Felicia Simmons addresses Jefferson Parish School Board member Mark Morgan during a parent-teacher organization meeting on the possible closure of the Gretna school in January.

They've taken the extra steps of hiring a moderator and setting up systems for people who cannot attend in person to submit comments through the Internet and text messaging.

The first meeting is 6 p.m. Monday at Alfred Bonnabel Magnet Academy High in Kenner. The second session is 6 p.m. Tuesday at L.W. Higgins High in Marrero.

Up for debate are proposals to close two traditional schools. Kate Middleton Elementary in Gretna would send its students to William Hart Elementary in Gretna and Terrytown Elementary. Norbert Rillieux Elementary in Waggaman would send its students to Lucile Cherbonnier Elementary in Waggaman.

The plan targets three alternative schools. St. Ville Academy in Harvey would close and its program for students lagging their grade levels would move to the campus of John Ehret High in Marrero. Waggaman School would close and send its academically struggling students to the West Bank Community School in Marrero. Ralph Bunche Academy in Metairie, a program similar to St. Ville, would relocate to the Bonnabel campus.

At the same time, officials are aiming to even out enrollment in a trio of crowded schools, Estelle Elementary in Marrero, Alice Birney Elementary in Metairie and A.C. Alexander Elementary in Kenner.

Jefferson Parish's Acting Superintendent James Meza in November 2011.

The Estelle plan starts a chain of student transfers affecting 1,120 students in five West Bank locations and creating what would be the only public school covering pre-kindergarten through eighth-grade in Jefferson Parish at what is now Allen Ellender Middle in Marrero.

About 402 Estelle students would move to Ellender's newly added elementary grades, displacing about 400 current Ellender students to Truman Middle in Marrero, 212 Truman students to Stella Worley Middle in Westwego and 106 Worley students to Henry Ford Middle in Avondale.

On the east bank, about 71 Birney students would move to Bissonet Plaza Elementary in Metairie and 70 Alexander students would move to G.T. Woods Elementary in Kenner.

In total, officials project the moves would save about $2 million.

"We're not the school system we were in 1981, especially in terms of enrollment, and I think we need to start reflecting that," said Richard Carpenter, deputy superintendent for instruction, repeating a contention of Jefferson officials in recent years that the school system has failed to adjust its number of campuses and employees to a decades-long decline in enrollment, which now stands at about 46,500.

Jefferson Parish School Board President Mark Jacobs

Budget deficits in recent years increase the urgency, said Acting Superintendent James Meza.

"Most importantly, we have to have high-performing services for students, high performing teaching and learning," Meza said. "The outcome should be we save money and students are placed in higher-performing schools."

In choosing schools to list for closure, officials weighed performance based on test scores, enrollment, the conditions of facilities, transportation issues for students, desegregation ramifications and whether a shutdown would disrupt any newly launched turnaround efforts.

Spreading students more evenly among campuses would make better use of classroom space and avoid packing too many students onto some campuses to the detriment of learning, Meza said. Estelle, with its 1,125 students, has long been distinguished as one of the largest public elementary schools in the state.

Alleviating congestion at Estelle also presents an opportunity to begin tackling a problem of weak test scores for middle schools by creating combined middle and elementary schools, Meza said.

Jefferson Parish students seem to struggle greatly with the transition from elementary to middle grades. In 2010-11, Meza said, the parish had the state's highest rate of sixth graders being held back to repeat the grade and the seventh highest rate for seventh graders.

So if the effort works well at Ellender, it could become the first of many combined elementary and middle schools in Jefferson, eliminating a transition.

"I'm hoping that these meetings will afford the community and the board a chance to be informed as to why the school system recommends these particular consolidations and school closures," said Mark Jacobs, School Board president.

Jacobs described the changes as important steps but also said, "I think it's important that we maintain an open mind."

She argued that moving Middleton students to Hart and Terrytown will cause hardships for families who live close to Middleton. The move places a burden on students, Pitts said, making them transfer to unfamiliar schools where she worries teachers will view them as newcomers from a struggling campus. Instead, she said, the system should reform the school.

"Don't move the kids," Pitts said. "Move the staff around and get somebody who can help the kids. Buildings don't teach the children. People do."